Carbohydrates mediate many essential biological processes. For example, the saccharide-containing macromolecules that decorate cell surfaces are vital to a variety of cellular functions including cell-cell recognition, apoptosis, differentiation, and tumor metastasis. Carbohydrate appendages often play a key role in drug-target interactions. Thus, adding sugar moeities to known compounds can improve the parent compound's pharmacological properties, specificity at multiple levels, or even the molecular mechanism of action, and is a potential strategy for the generation of novel therapeutics. Thorson J S, et al. (2002) in Carbohydrate-Based Drug Discovery, ed. Wong C-H (Wiley-VCH, Weinheim), pp. 685-712; Ahmed A, et al. (2006) J Am Chem Soc 128: 14224-5.
Warfarin, 4-hydroxy-3-(3-oxo-1-phenylbutyl)-2H-1-benzopyran-2-one, is a synthetic analog of the natural anti-coagulant dicumarol. The chemical structure of Warfarin is shown in FIG. 1. This compound has been used extensively as a rodenticide and as an anticoagulant for human use. Glycosylated analogs of warfarin possessing novel and/or improved bioactivities may be useful in developing novel therapeutic compositions and methods of treatment. In addition, warfarin has intrinsic fluorescence, and glycosylated analogs of warfarin compounds could be used as research tools for studying sugar uptake in cells.